Birju Dattani Joins the Centre for Free Expression as a Senior Fellow

The Centre for Free Expression (CFE) is pleased to announce that Birju Dattani is joining CFE as  a Senior Fellow.

“Birju is one of Canada’s leading experts on human rights, and we are honoured that he will be helping lead our work on the relationship of expressive freedom and human rights,” said James L. Turk, Director of the CFE.

“We will be focusing on several aspects of the intersection of freedom of expression and human rights law, including hateful and offensive speech; expression as harassment and discrimination under human rights law; identity protective cognition and political expression; and the protection of political belief, association, and activity in human rights law.”

Mr. Dattani is the former Chief Commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. He began his legal career with the Syrian Legal Development Program under the auspices of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, as the Director of Legal Operations for International Law. He then became the Assistant Regional Director at the Alberta Human Rights Commission and subsequently Executive Director of the Yukon Human Rights Commission for three years, responsible for administering the Yukon Human Rights Act, before joining Centennial College in 2023 as the Director of Human Rights and Conflict Resolution.

He earned a Bachelor of Laws with Honours from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth; a Master of Laws in Public International Law from the London School of Economics & Political Science, with merit; and was a Teaching Fellow in the Faculty of Law at the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London, teaching International Comparative Law, Human Rights Law, and European Union Law.